Quotes

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Wicked Advice

"Beware of letting yourself be hugged by wizards and City Councillors! You need to be able to see both of their faces at all times."

Elphaba

AS WE ARE LIBERATED

By Marianne Williamson

(Quoted by Nelson Mandela in his inaugural speech.)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant,

georgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about

shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that

is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our light shine,

we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,

our presence automatically liberates others.

Read by Counsellor John Dixon at the end of his talk on self esteem for Pride in Canterbury on 9th May 2008.

A message for everyone, and surely the last two lines are what pride and LGBT Prides are all about.

"The persecution of people because of their sexual orientation is every bit as unjust as that crime against humanity, apartheid. We must be allowed to love with honour."

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Homophobia is a fear of people loving, more than it is of the sexual act. There seems to be an innate distaste for the love involved, which I find absolutely extraordinary. The issue is love. It's not about sex. So that's what I knew about Dumbledore."

Harry Potter author JK Rowling, in an interview to a student newspaper, defends her decision to out Dumbledore last year. The revelations about Dumbledore have given evangelical Christians new reason to call for her works to be banned.

People sometimes say to us "Why are you doing what you are doing? You have got what you want." We print below, two thought-provoking articles that answer that question and give the lie to their statement.

Gay Culture has enriched our city life.

(An article in The Evening Standard by Neil Bartlett.)

Two nights ago, hurrying across Shaftesbury Avenue and onto Old compton Street just as the sun was setting, I finally realised just what it is that has changed about this part of the town since I first discovered it. The fear has gone.

When I first came here as a nervous schooboy in 1973, the backstreets of Soho still had much in common with the 1950s world that first feted and then persecuted actor John Gielgud, infamously arrested for cottaging just as he was on the brink of becoming the biggest theatre star of his day.

But now Gielgud, whose 1953 ordeal is explored in Nicholas de Jongh's play "Plague Over England", has a theatre named after him. Soho's gay bars and cafes, far from being the secretive haunts of my youth, have kitted themselves out with big, bold plate-glass windows. Imagine trying to explain to a contemporary of Gielgud's that there would come a time when gay men would be happy to perch on a bar stool for all the world to see. These windows let London know that the streets of the West End feel better when they belong to us all.

It's a great working example of what multiculturalism really means: the simple, cheerful fact that a part of London's population that was once harassed and vilified is fully part of the good life that only a great City can offer.

But my moment of euphoria didn't last. Greeting a DJ friend, I was slapped in the face with a story straight out of the 1950's. Barely months after his family had gathered to wish him and his lover well at their civil partnership ceremony, his new brother-in-law had written to say that it would be best if they stopped seeing their nephews and nieces.

Back that miserable anecdote up with the latest statistics about young gay Londoner's lives - more than half of the lesbian and gay secondary school pupils in the capital skipping school because of bullying; 17 per cent of them receiving death threats. Bad old days? Maybe we're still living in them after all.

Being reminded of stories like Gielgud's shouldn't make us congratulate ourselves on how marvellous we Londoners have done in putting the dark days behind us. They should prompt us to ask just how we got from there to here. And they should make us all the more determined to ensure that no Londoner ever has to feel anything but proud of the city they live in again.

(So what does that say about the work that needs to be done in Cities and Towns throughout the country? - Ed)

Neil Bartlett's new novel " Skin Lane" is published by Serpent's Tail.

( See second article "In Election '08, is there a place for gay rights?" opposite )

"I am very honoured to receive this accolade from Pride in Canterbury. I believe we need to support Prides outside the obvious gay centres to give LGBT people up and down the country the opportunity to gain confidence and profile within their local communities. I am truly touched by this."

James Ledward, Editor Gscene, on receiving his Pride in Canterbury Award as Man of the Year, for his support, throughout the years, for Pride in Canterbury.

"The UK has gay marriage and I applaud you for it. But are you really going to tell me that everyone is now out of the closet? You may have gay marriage but you still have gay shame. No, the work is not yet done."

Harvey Fierstein.

Straight friends who recently visited the United States sent us the following article, which was published in USA Today on February 6th 2008.

In Election '08, is there a place for gay rights?

By Bruce Kluger

In the first season of "The L Word", Showtime's libidinous lesbian soap opera, the character Tasha has a crisis. Black, beautiful and enlisted in the National Guard, she is accused of violating the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which forbids gay personnel from revealing their sexual orientation, or face discharge.

Rather than ship out to Iraq as planned, Tasha returns home to her surprised lover, Alice, angry at a government she wants to serve and ashamed at being victimised by the abhorrent policy.

In the 15 years since President Clinton approved "don't ask, don't tell", the social stigma often tagged to homosexuality has, in many cases, dropped away like molting feathers. Cultural entertainment has helped fuel this transformation, incorporating gay themes into content in an easier, breezier way.

"Will and Grace" and "Ellen" exploded onto TV screens in the mid-90s, followed soon by "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", a reality show that used gay sensibilities as a hip prism through which to examine fashion trends and romance. The edgier "Queer as Folk" and "The L Word" proved to viewers that the trials, trysts and truths of gay relationships weren't all that different from straight ones.

More recently, gay roles have increasingly popped up on the big screen -such as Steve Carell's hilariously tortured Proust scholar in "Little Miss Sunshine" - not so much for an exploration of their sexuality as for what their characters lend to the story.

Yet this significant step forward carries with it a liablity: As entertainment executives conscientiously work to bring the gay experience into the mainstream in a non-political way, they also run the risk of neglecting the real-life struggles gays continuue to face.

In January alone, courtrooms nationwide were buzzing with cases concerning basic civil rights protection for gays and lesbians. Gay marriage - a successful wedge issue in the 2004 elections- has become a non-issue in 2008, an ironic defeat for gay activists left staring at constitutional amendments banning same-sex wedlock in 26 states. And yes, "don't ask, don't tell" continues to inflame defenders of free speech everywhere - gay and straight alike.

According to a "60 Minutes" investigation in December, the policy has resulted in the ousting of more than 12,000 members of the armed forces, even as three quarters of Americans tell pollsters that openly gay men and women should be allowed to serve.

Despite such overwhelming numbers, the presidential candidates have barely touched on the subject, focusing instead on such poll-tested topics as the economy and the war in Iraq. (No surprise there. Why tackle a "fringe issue" when there are masses to rally?)

Which is why it is heartening to see "The L Word" march up to "don't ask, don't tell" in this season's storyline. Like other TV fare that zooms in on real life injustices, it is exercising its conscience.

" I believe that Americans really do care about 'don't ask, don't tell', even if it's not at the top of their candidates issues checklists," the series creator and executive producer, Ilene Chaiken, told me by email. "We went with the storyline because the subject touches on gay issues in the broadest sense - issues of equality and discrimination."

The Super Tuesday turnout reaffirms that the USA is once again ready for a national conversation. Let's just hope that the discussion includes gay citizens too. It would be nice to see Tasha, among others, live happily ecer after.